Reincarnation of the Cloud Dragon - Chapter 1

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This chapter is translated by Falnar Novels Team.
Support us by reading on our official site: https://falnarnovels.com
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Chapter 1.
Kunlun.
A Daoist sword sect that built its gates upon the eternal snows of Qinghai, wielding blades against the bitter winds as if they were companions in cultivation.
Positioned closest to the Demonic Cult, the first to draw steel whenever those demons stirred.
A sect that had been driven to the brink of annihilation countless times, yet never once abandoned its sacred ground.
Warriors who refined their way amid the frigid snow-winds, pouring purity and righteousness into a single blade.
Thus.
Kunlun harbored no cowards,
no men without integrity,
no one who would swallow humiliation and bow their head.
The martial artists of Kunlun had always taken pride in this truth.
Even the heterodox sects could not deny Kunlun’s unwavering righteousness, much less the orthodox martial world.
…And yet.
‘What good is any of it?’
The man called Kunlun’s First Sword, Yun Ryong.
A bitter smile twisted across Yun Cheon’s lips.
Upon receiving intelligence that the Demonic Cult would soon make its move, Yun Cheon had rushed to the Martial Alliance with his disciples.
But the Martial Alliance… did nothing.
“We understand Kunlun’s concerns, yet for the Alliance to act, we require irrefutable proof….”
“Moreover, even if we were to send aid, which sect would contribute how many soldiers….”
A full ten days.
They had dismissed Yun Cheon’s warning beneath the guise of deliberation.
In that time, precious hours slipped away like sand through fingers.
Then an urgent dispatch arrived before him.
[Demonic Cult’s main force assaults Kunlun Mountain. Return at once.]
Yun Cheon bit his lip and left one final instruction with his disciple.
“Should those hypocrites abandon Kunlun in the end… rely on them no longer. Plan for the future instead. You must become Kunlun’s hope.”
Since then, he had not rested for seven days and nights, arriving at this moment.
At last, what unfolded before his eyes was not the beloved Kunlun he remembered,
but a living hell.
Halls consumed by flame.
Sword marks that had written a history in blood.
And… the cold corpses of his martial brothers.
Only the gruesome traces of desperate resistance greeted him.
“…Junior brother!”
The junior brother who had once sought instruction with clumsy swordplay.
[Senior brother! How is it possible for your blade to move with such speed?]
That head now lay at his feet, eyes wide open in death.
“…Senior brother!”
The senior brother who had offered wine with a playful smile was dead, his body severed at the waist.
[Yun Cheon! The moonlight is splendid tonight. Why do you spend all your days swinging that sword? Come, share a drink with me.]
“――!”
What erupted from Yun Cheon’s throat was no human sound.
A dragon’s anguished cry, howling toward the heavens.
Srrriiing―.
The blade sang with a chilling resonance, as if resonating with its master’s sorrow, and was drawn forth.
“If any disciple of Kunlun yet draws breath, hear me! I am Yun Cheon, the First Blade of Kunlun! I have returned!”
Yet only the Demonic Cult answered his cry.
Across Kunlun Mountain, dark masses writhed like cockroaches.
“Good… Come then. Dogs of the Demonic Cult!”
From Yun Cheon’s hand, the sword techniques of Kunlun unfurled like a blood-red requiem for the dead.
The Taiqing Blade, which should have been pure and pristine, danced madly in a frenzy of slaughter.
Rage clouded my vision, yet my sword’s edge never wavered.
I moved my exhausted body as if wielding a whip against myself.
‘This sword dance is judgment itself…!’
The Heavenly Void Dragon-Slaying Sword, shaped like a dragon’s form, roared ferociously.
Screech—! Splaaash—!
Where the flash swept past, silence fell, followed by fountains of crimson blood.
With each flash of the blade, multiple heads soared skyward in unison.
Not a single one could properly receive even one strike.
One strike, one kill.
No—one strike, certain death.
Blood fountains erupted everywhere.
An endless dark tide of death, no matter how many fell.
Strike down one, and two rush forward. Strike down two, and four surround you.
Such was the military might of the Demonic Cult.
Yet now, the dark wave—
Was being severed in crimson before a single swordsman.
“Im… Impossible! Is that a Daoist?”
“That’s… That’s him! The First Blade of Kunlun…!”
“A… A master-level cultivator in just one strike?”
The Demonic Cult members instinctively retreated step by step.
“Do not fall back! There is only one of him!”
To make matters worse, I had traversed over a thousand li in a single day from the Martial Alliance in Luoyang to Kunlun Mountain in Qinghai.
My once-boundless dantian reserves had run dry, and I could barely channel any inner force into my blade.
“Disgusting vermin… How many of you crawled here?”
Slowly, wounds accumulated across my body, and blood seeped forth.
“Haa… Haa….”
At last, when my dantian was completely exhausted, I staggered up to the Taiqing Hall of Kunlun.
There, I discovered the corpse of the sect leader, his body torn to shreds.
The sect leader clutched the ancient jade pendant—Kunlun’s divine artifact—in his grip until his final breath.
[Yun Cheon, no. You must endure! For Kunlun!]
The image of his senior’s face, pleading with me until the very end, surfaced in my mind.
But I shook my head.
“Senior… Enduring and waiting was never the answer. I should never have trusted the Martial Alliance, stagnant and rotting as it had become!”
I closed the sect leader’s wide-open eyes and secured the jade pendant in my robes.
“…I will follow you soon. After cutting down as many of these Demonic Cult dogs as I can.”
Riiiiip—
I tore my robe and bound my sword firmly to my hand, then emerged from Taiqing Hall.
Already, waves of black-clad Demonic Cult members surged around the hall like a tidal wave.
‘There is no escape….’
Clinging to my fading consciousness, I cut through the cultists and made my way toward Tianzhun Peak, Kunlun’s highest summit.
The sacred ground where all the sect leaders of Kunlun throughout history had undergone their final ascension.
I wanted to gaze upon Kunlun one last time in that place where all the fallen now rested.
‘Is this the end….’
As I exhausted even my true essence and vital qi, my knees finally buckled.
Then, from the jade pendant against my chest, a pure azure light spilled forth.
Simultaneously, an unfamiliar voice pierced through my dimming consciousness.
[…Thousands of years. And Kunlun’s history ends so pathetically.]
In that instant, an old man in a blue robe materialized before me like mist.
Was I seeing a phantom in my final moments?
[No phantom. You are a disciple of Kunlun, bearer of the divine artifact… I am the Immortal Sage who has watched over Kunlun’s decline. Your life, too, draws to a close….]
The Immortal Sage’s voice carried profound sorrow and helplessness.
“…Senior, I… please, Kunlun’s elder….”
[There is no need to speak. I can read your thoughts. How you managed to reach this place in such a state… it is admirable.]
At his words, a flicker of hope ignited within my fading heart.
‘Could it be…? Does the Immortal Sage possess a way to prevent Kunlun’s destruction…?’
But the Immortal Sage simply shook his head with finality.
[Kunlun’s fate has already turned. There is no way to prevent its annihilation….]
A declaration of despair.
Yet the Immortal Sage’s words did not end there.
[However, there is one path. If you do not fear treading the way of the demonic arts…!]
‘For Kunlun, I will do anything! What is this method?’
[As long as the Demonic Cult coils itself around Tianshan, Kunlun’s destruction cannot be prevented. Therefore, you must infiltrate the very heart of the Demonic Cult and bring it down from within.]
‘…How can I, whose life hangs by a thread, infiltrate the Demonic Cult and topple them?’
[That… I shall handle. What you must do is not mere infiltration… Follow the law that the Demonic Cult reveres—the law of the strong. Ascend to the highest position within the Demonic Cult.]
‘…Are you telling a disciple of Kunlun to become the Heavenly Demon?’
[Precisely. Become the Heavenly Demon and shatter the Demonic Cult from within!]
‘Become the Heavenly Demon and destroy the Demonic Cult from the inside?’
The very thought of such a revenge was exhilarating beyond measure.
The only thing weighing on my mind was that I, a Taoist of Kunlun, would now walk the path of the Demonic Cult.
But the stern voice of my master echoed in my head as if he were shouting at me now.
[Kunlun does not forget its grievances!]
[Kunlun is the greatest sword sect under heaven.]
[And the sword of Kunlun never forgets its hatred.]
These were my master’s teachings.
‘My senior brothers surely believed that reinforcements from the Martial Alliance would come to save us. Yet the Martial Alliance never sent a single soldier….’
To forget my senior brothers who perished in the Demonic Cult’s invasion and the Martial Alliance’s indifference would be the truest betrayal of all.
‘How could I ever forget such a grievance, even in death….’
With my resolve firm, I nodded.
‘I shall do as you command.’
[Good. There is no time left now. Go and fulfill your purpose…!]
My consciousness grew hazy, yet a strange smile played at the corners of my mouth.
The Immortal Sage’s form transformed into radiant light and poured into me.
At the same moment, my consciousness was pulled into an endless darkness.
* * *
“Tch, these new arrivals are pathetically weak. One swallowed the Solitude Pill and his breathing stopped.”
Beyond my hazy consciousness, the callous voices of men pierced my ears.
Along with them came a suffocating pain that crashed over me.
“Gasp… cough!”
I opened my eyes in an unfamiliar place.
“Huh, this bastard. I could have sworn his breathing had stopped.”
“Somehow he’s breathing again. Let’s just throw him in the infirmary for now.”
Before the words even finished, someone hoisted me up and slung me over their shoulder.
Through eyes that could barely open, I saw a skeletal frame draped in rags stained with filth.
‘…What is happening?’
This was not the body of Yun Cheon, Kunlun’s greatest swordsman.
In that instant, a shattering headache struck, and foreign memories flooded my mind.
They were the memories of a nameless orphan who had wandered the streets.
‘What… what kind of bizarre providence is this?’
Straining to clear my blurred vision, I surveyed my surroundings from over the shoulder of the man carrying me.
A damp cave, grotesque murals, and in the distance, a faintly visible enormous crimson banner.
The bizarre symbol inscribed upon that banner.
‘That is…!’
It was the very symbol I had seen countless times on the robes of the Demonic Cult members I had cut down until my final breath.
The mark of the Heavenly Demon.
In that moment, my mind froze.
‘Could it be… the Immortal Sage’s words have come to pass?’
He had said it would be more than a simple infiltration, but this far exceeded my expectations.
I, Yun Cheon, had been reborn in the very heart of the Demonic Cult.
A hollow laugh escaped me before I could stop it.
‘…So I’ve been cast into the demon’s lair from the very beginning.’

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This chapter is translated by Falnar Novels Team.
Support us by reading on our official site: https://falnarnovels.com
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